This lot is closed. Bidding ended on 12/10/2003.
Upon the death of photographer Phillip Sarno, his son Tom inherited his incredible collection of photo negatives. Most were ill-kept in shoeboxes without much knowledge of what the collection contained in whole. Tom later solicited a group, including Bob O'Neill, that was involved in the sale of vintage sports art to review the mass of negatives. After entering into a contractual agreement for the security and representation of the negatives, Tom Sarno shipped the complete collection to O'Neill's group for research and analysis of the collection's content. The negatives were immediately brought to one of the nation's top photographic laboratories, where each strip of film was professionally cleaned and repaired if necessary. Once that job was completed, each strip was laid out in 8" x 10" groupings and carefully exposed onto "contact sheets" so each image could be seen clearly and concisely. Once the sheets were developed, the lab technicians stood in shock and awe at the phenomenal, historic imagery that was unfolding before their very eyes, mostly never seen or published images of baseball's biggest legends, such as Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, just to name a few. Equally compelling was the artistic talent that Phillip Sarno exhibited in capturing the essence of each player. Shortly after receiving the contact sheets, a handful of Mickey Mantle images were licensed and sold on a limited edition basis through the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. In later years, Sarno disposed of the collection piece by piece to collectors across the country. To this day, the complete Sarno Collection of contact sheets has only been seen by a handful of people, including Bob Costas (NBC), T.S. O'Connell (SCD), Rich Pilling (MLB Photos) and Jerome Holtzman (MLB Historian). All agree that the Sarno Collection ranks with such other notable collections such as those of Burke and Conlon. It is certified that this is the only complete set of Phillip Sarno's contact sheets in existence.